TARJEI AND JOHANNES GALA: TWO NORVEGIAN BROTHERS TRIUMPHANT IN THE PURSUIT RACE
The 12.5km men’s pursuit race that was the highlight of the 8th round of the World Cup event in Nové Město na Moravě turned out to be a two-men show. A two-brother show, to be precise… The older Tarjei took the gold, Johannes took the silver, and the bronze went to the winner of yesterday’s sprint, Simon Desthieux of France. In comparison to the sprint, Czechs achieved good results: Michal Krčmář jumped 25 places and finished 14th, Ondřej Moravec took two points for finishing on 39th place.
Tarjei Boe got in the lead after second prone position shooting, and never left a podium position. Not a single target missed in standing position meant that he set off into the last lap more than 11 seconds ahead of a chasing group that included his brother Johannes on fourth place. Tarjei maintained his lead all the way to the finish line, and as Johannes got ahead of his closest opponents, the brothers could celebrate their success.
It was for the third time that they stood on the podium together.
Gold medals have been taken only by Johannes, though. He had won pursuit race in 2018, and Tarjei had been second, last year Johannes won in sprint and Tarjei took the bronze.
Today, Michal Krčmář excelled at the shooting range, hit all targets, and had 19th fastest running time. “I was very disappointed after the sprint race for I had a missed target in every shooting. Today has been much better, both at the shooting range and on the track. Shooting speed is the only thing that could have been better.” Statistics of the race only confirm his words: the Czech biathlete had 52nd fastest shooting time, losing 26 seconds on the best in the shooting range.
Ondřej Moravec worked really hard to get his two points for finishing 39th. “I had a slow start into the race. The first shooting was really long and I missed on top of that.” He dropped to 50th place. “But the longer I was on the track, the better I felt. I even managed to speed up in the end, and get some points.” Jakub Štvrtecký made four mistakes in the shooting range, and finished 47th.
Author: Tomáš Hermann
Photo: Michal Jilka
